PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Perry County District Schools would transform its facilities over the next eight years if voters pass a proposition April 4 in an effort to address crowded classrooms and hallways.

The district would begin with construction of a new elementary-school building to house grades kindergarten through second. The 65,000 to 70,000-square-foot building also will include a tornado safe room that could hold every student in the elementary school — currently more than 800 students, according to superintendent Andy Comstock.

If the proposition passes, Comstock said he hopes to have the new elementary building built by 2019. Incite Design Studio has developed the preliminary designs.

Next would be the renovation of the elementary school building for grades three and four. The current building originally was designed as a high school, with smaller classrooms to accommodate instructors teaching one subject, Comstock said.

Elementary classrooms usually include more floor space to accommodate different types of teaching, Comstock said.

Students and faculty pack into the cafeteria Wednesday at Perryville Elementary School.Laura Simon

Parents went to the district to complain about the capacity at the elementary school in 2015, Comstock said. The school was meant to have a capacity of 720 students, but there are more than 800 in the elementary now, he said.

To make room for more space for teachers, copy machines and file cabinets reside in hallways, Comstock said. Recently, the district needed English language-learning classes, which require intimate interactions between teachers and students and thus necessitate more space.

“Our spaces are determining our instructional programs,” Comstock said. “Your instructional programs should be reflected in your spaces.”

After the elementary school is finished, the district would tear down a section of the middle school and construct a new building in the same spot.

The current middle school was an elementary school, making the hallways claustrophobic for students moving from class to class, Comstock said.

Perry County Middle School houses grades fifth through eighth, with the fifth grade in a connected metal building.

Many of the school’s noncore classes — music, art and English-language learning as examples — are taught at the high school.

“There have been so many additions ongoing here,” Comstock said of the structures adjoined to the middle and high schools. “It gets a little confusing.”

Like the elementary school, the middle school is over student capacity, Comstock said. Plans for a new middle-school building have not been formulated yet, Comstock said.

The last project — seven or eight years down the road — would be renovations of the high school, with the limited plan to bring all the classrooms into one building.

The building is about 90 years old, Comstock said.

The district is working on heating, ventilation and air-conditioning upgrades at the high school.

“We’ll look at the football field, bleachers, locker rooms,” Comstock said of renovations.

To accomplish all of these projects, voters need to pass a 35-cent property-tax increase, raising the district’s levy to $3.56 per $100 of assessed value.

The tax increase would bring in about $300,000 per year, Comstock said.

The district also will commit funding already from the tax levy and about $900,000 worth of fund transfers, bringing the total amount available in the first year to about $1.35 million.

The district would use this money as the capital for lease certificates, allowing the district to borrow money without bonds, Comstock said.

Other area school districts — Jackson, Oran, Chaffee and Scott County Central — are asking voters to increase the debt service through bonds for the district without raising taxes.

Perry County District Schools does not have any existing debt service on which to add, Comstock said.

“We as a district cannot build buildings with current district funds,” Comstock said.

The lease certificate format also allows the district to make plans as projects are completed, Comstock said.

“I don’t need to borrow money on the middle school until I need to,” Comstock said.

Comstock understands he is asking voters to accept a significant tax increase, but pointed out Perry County’s total tax levy is lower than other local districts.

The Cape Girardeau School District levy is $4.15 per $100 of assessed value; Jackson’s is $3.80 and Farmington’s is $3.74.

Perry County’s levy also would be lower than Fredericktown’s, Oak Ridge’s and Altenburg’s.

Perry County held forums about the tax increase in 2016, and residents there supported the tax increase, Comstock said.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address: 326 College St., Perryville, MO